ARTICLE VII.-EMANCIPATION.

The Ordeal of Free

Labor in the British West Indies. By WM. G. SEWELL. pp. 325. pp. 325.

Harper & Brothers. 1861.

The West Indies as they Were and Are. Edinburgh Review, April, 1859.

Compendium of the Seventh Census. pp. 400. Washington, 1854.

Slavery in the United States. An Address by GEO. M. WESTON. Washington, 1861.

Message of President Lincoln, March 6th, 1862.

THE Message of President Lincoln, sent to congress in March last, for the first time lisping from the seat of government the word Emancipation, combined with the course of events during the last few months, has removed the question of the abolition of slavery in the United States, from the almost exclusive possession of speculatists, philanthropists, and the hitherto hated abolitionists, and set it up as the chief practical question for the consideration of the nation. What the War of 1812 was; what the Bank, and Tariff, and Subtreasury questions have been since; such is now the question of Emancipation: and such it is to remain until settled.>

In what we have to say we shall use the terms Emancipation and Abolition as being of like signification. For, although they are in themselves distinct, and neither necessarily implies the other, yet, as a practical matter, relating to us at the present time, we think they are inseparably combined. If the slaves held in bondage by us shall be emancipated, whether by act of congress or the swifter act of military power, such is the state of public opinion that we cannot doubt that the abolition of slavery, as an institution, will quickly follow. Nor, on the other hand, do we believe that the abolition of slavery is likely to be effected, whether by act of the

general government or that of the separate states, without its being accompanied by the emancipation, within a reasonable time, of the existing slaves. As a matter of convenience, therefore, we shall use the terms interchangeably.

The slavery question presents itself to our consideration in several distinct, though related aspects, such as the moral, the political-including the social, and the economic or financial. On moral grounds it would seem easy to determine the question. And yet, until recently, it might have been debated whether the moral feeling of the nation as a whole was as generally arrayed against slavery as it was half a century ago. The patent proofs of this may be found in the formal deliverances of ecclesiastical bodies at the South, and in the purpose, publicly avowed at the outbreak of the present. rebellion, to make human slavery the corner stone of the proposed southern confederacy. It is not to be denied, either, that in the northern portion of the country the moral sentiment of the people has not been arrayed against slavery as it should have been. Among those composing the churches, of all denominations, we have no doubt there has been a growing and decisive opposition. But among those not actuated by distinctively religious motives, such progress has been less manifest. Partly through political intrigue, and partly through the blinding influence of the pecuniary gains accruing to northern trade from the products of slave labor, there has been bred extensively a disinclination to look upon slavery in its true character, or to treat it as it has deserved to be treated. The moneyed interest of the North has been on the side of slavery, and has frowned upon the expression of right opinion in regard to the subject. And then there has been a large inert mass, as there is in every community, having no positive opinions about anything of a moral nature, and whose opinions upon any subject are not based upon well considered facts or truths; who have served, as such masses always do, to block the wheels of moral advancement by their simple dead inertia, rather than by any decided or intelligent opposition.

But even among a portion of the pious and the humane,

there has been sometimes a failure in the development of right sentiment and action. Taking it for granted, as many of this class have, that slavery had become so strongly entrenched among us as to defy all endeavors to free ourselves from it, they have dismissed the subject from consideration on the ground that feeling and endeavor could result in no practical good, and would, therefore, be a useless expenditure of sympathy and effort. So, forgetting that wherever there is sin God has made it possible to be free from it, and is pledged to help and give ultimate success to all endeavors to do right, it has been easy for such to take the next step and to accept the argument that our responsibility for the evil in question is not so great, after all,-that slavery was introduced here by Great Britain against the protestation of our ancestors, and that the mother country is responsible, rather than we, for the wide spread fruit of that early seed-sowing. The mind once settled into this attitude, even "south-side" views of slavery have been taken by good men, and abolitionists have been looked upon too often as reckless disturbers of the peace.

The most that has been done has been in the endeavor to restrict its growth. And this endeavor has resulted from economic and political, rather than from moral, considerations. Political and pecuniary interests have overborne and repressed those of a moral character. The nation has not, since the passage of the ordinance of 1787, treated slavery as a wrong. It has not looked the subject in the face as a moral matter, but only as a thing of policy. No political party even, if we except the so-called liberty party, has taken ground against it as a moral evil, and therefore to be put out of the

way.

But God has had this matter in hand all the while, and though we were too oblivious of those moral considerations which ought to have actuated us, he has not been forgetful of his own And now, by the events of the last few years, and particularly those which have followed the political conventions of the year 1860, God has brought all classes face to face with the question of slavery, as the great practical question of the

cause.

We of the North New convictions. wrought into it

time. He has brought them also to look at it in its moral, as well as in its political and economic aspects. are looking upon the subject as never before. have seized the public mind and have been with wonderful rapidity and force since, eighteen months ago, Slavery exchanged its accustomed threats for an armed assault upon one of the national fortresses, and stood revealed at once in the attitude of a great system of moral wrong, as well as a political inconvenience. The practical question, "What is to be done with slavery?" came up side by side with the question, "What is to be done with the rebellion ?"

It cannot be doubted either, that the sentiment of the country is fast preponderating in favor of the entire abolition of slavery. Such was the power of this iniquity, it so held North as well as South within its grasp, that comparatively few saw at the outset the real significance of the revolt of South Carolina and the states which followed her lead. The war, begun at Sumter, was replied to by the government for a long while in the mildest manner possible and with special protestations that there was no design to interfere with slavery.* But the spirit which this baneful institution has disclosed in the incitement and prosecution of the existing rebellion, its unprovoked assault, its readiness to put in hazard the peace of the nation and the lives of its citizens, the atrocities and barbarities of which it has been guilty, which would put to shame the scalping savages of the forest or the most brutal pagans of the sea, these things have turned the public feeling against it as pulpit and platform discourses and the writings of the most humane and Christian could never have done. To-day slavery stands condemned before the moral judgment of the nation. It is now looked upon by the people generally, as we hardly dared to hope it would be in half a century from the present time, as a great power of iniquity. And the swift rising tide of feeling cries out for its overthrow.

*The Peace Congress, so called, were ready even to give it new constitutional guarantees.

But is this possible, and if so, how? Is Emancipation practicable? For, after all, we apprehend that the right decision of the question before us will not be reached, except as the abolition of slavery is shown to be, in the details and necessary incidents of the process, a practicable matter as well as a duty. Our arguments on the present occasion, therefore, will not be directed toward the moral aspects of the subject, except incidentally, but will be aimed at the lower level of expediency and practicability, to show that whether emancipation be a duty or not, it is not a thing environed with so many difficulties, or of such doubtful expediency, as many suppose.

We have reached the conviction, by the help of the rebellion, that the president, as the military head of the nation, can decree the emancipation of the slaves as a military necessity, whenever this is demanded for the successful prosecution of the war and the preservation of the national integrity. It would seem also that congress, as the legislative organ of public conviction and of the public will, might pass an enactment for the abolition of slavery, on the ground of its proved incompatibility with the national prosperity, and even the national safety. And if any one interposes a constitutional objection that slavery is a state affair, with which the general government cannot interfere, we fall back, if necessary, upon the admitted principle, "Salus populi suprema lex"-the preservation of the nation is the supreme law.

No constitution can be expected to provide for all the contingencies of human affairs. The state, moreover, makes the constitution, not the constitution the state, as seems so often to be supposed. There is an idolatry of constitutions, which is as blind and unreasoning as any African fetichism. And as with fetichism, so selfish men find this idolatry a very convenient tool of jugglery for their own advantage. There is much also of meaningless talk about the value, the sacredness even of the Union. But union is nothing, constitutions are nothing, compared with the nation itself. The first duty of the state is self-preservation; and in caring for this its hands must not be tied even by the cords of constitutional restraint. Constitutional provisions are the instruments which the nation